East Panhandle News

There were 607 white students enrolled in Hamilton County's only school district in the 2023-24 school year, a 1.7% increase over the 597 white students in the previous school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Data showed that Hamilton County welcomed a total of 1,637 students at the time. Among them, white students comprised 37.1% of the student body to be the most represented ethnicity in the county. They were followed by Black students with a count of 574 (35.1%), and Hispanic students, totaling 378, or 23.1% of the student population.

Gov. DeSantis has approved an education budget of over $28 billion for the 2024-25 school year. The new budget includes more than $1 billion earmarked exclusively for teacher salaries to better address the teacher shortage the state faces.

According to the National Education Association (NEA), Florida ranks 50th in the U.S. in terms of teacher salaries, only ahead of West Virginia.

District	No. of white Students	Total District Enrollment	% of Total Enrollment
Hamilton County School District	607	1,637	37.1%